


Small Victories

by shinchansgirl



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Complete, Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-15
Updated: 2014-03-15
Packaged: 2018-01-15 18:30:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1314889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinchansgirl/pseuds/shinchansgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Takes place during Book 5, though at no specific point in the book.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Small Victories

Harry stared at the wand aimed at his face. After a few moments, he looked up the wand, past the heavily-ringed fingers, down the arm, and into the toad-like face of Professor – and High Inquisitor – Umbridge. Very slowly, he blinked. “Was there something I did wrong, _Professor_?” he asked, almost sweetly.  
  
The woman silently fumed, watching as Harry’s hand continued to write the lines _I will not tell lies_. Watched as he wrote, his blood appearing with every line…  
  
…but there were no raised welts on the back of his hand.  
  
“I don’t know what you did, Potter, but I’ll have you know that you are not to interfere with a detention handed to you! _Finite Incantatem_!”  
  
Harry continued to write, his handwriting a little skewed as he did so without looking directly at the parchment. The quill wasn’t harming the back of his hand, and Harry dared a look up at the frustrated woman. “I haven’t cast any spells, _Professor_ ,” he said, again with that stubborn emphasis on her title. As if it had some meaning she could not understand. “Perhaps if you took it to Headmaster Dumbledore, I’m sure he could understand if something was wrong.”  
  
The woman fumed and sat back at her desk to grade papers, marking them furiously in a bright red ink. No one would get a proper grade, Harry knew.  
  
But he sat there, still, writing his lines, and smirked as she looked away.  
  
He had one small victory to his name – he had switched her quill with one Hermione had made – and she hadn’t known how.  
  
Tomorrow, he knew, she would have a new quill. Tomorrow, she would have new dangers for him, and new ways of tormenting him and making him seem mad.  
  
But that was tomorrow.  
  
“Potter, you may add another night of detention to your punishment.”  
  
Harry frowned. “May I ask why, _Professor_.”  
  
“I have not found this detention to be satisfactory.”  
  
“But surely, _Professor_ , I’m not to blame if the quill doesn’t work right. I’m still serving my punishment. The other teachers would surely agree that it is not fair to lengthen a punishment because the teacher was not ready for it.”  
  
“Even Professor Snape?” she smirked.  
  
Harry made to think about it, trying to work his way to an agreeable answer. “Professor Snape is never unprepared, and he’d probably be insulted if anyone implied it. If he was, though, I think he’d let it go. He’d be angry, and frustrated, maybe, but he’d still let the detention stand as it was.”  
  
Which was most likely not the case, but Umbridge didn’t know Snape well enough to know that, now, did she?  
  
“Very well, I shall refrain from adding another night to your punishment,” she conceded.  
  
“Thank you, _Professor_.”  
  
Make that two small victories.  
  
The next morning, there were signs posted on the walls:  
  
 _By order of the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts:_  
  
 **Any punishment fulfilled not considered adequate by the teacher assigned may be repeated until the teacher feels the student has properly learned proper behavior.**  
  
The above is in accordance with the Educational Decrees.  
  
It was signed by Dolores Umbridge.  
  
Harry smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted at ff.net as part of the WritersFunk.


End file.
